HAT YAI/UBON RATCHATHANI: Hat Yai is a city slowly getting back on its feet. Two months after torrential monsoon rains turned streets into raging rapids and submerged much of the southern Thai city, many downtown shopfronts are finally just reopening after weeks of pressure-washing, mopping and scrubbing. Others remain shuttered, their windows still caked with silt and debris. On many buildings, brown watermarks etched 2m to 3m high offer a blunt reminder of how far the flood waters rose.
In Hat Yai’s central market, dried fruit and nuts vendor Marisa Wangbenmat was among those who rushed to clean up and reopen, hoping to recoup losses as quickly as possible. She spent more than a month and one million baht (S$40,480) replacing stock after losing about 80 per cent of her goods to the floods.
